


Music to Soothe a Distressed Hatchling

by Lohksparce



Series: A Guardian and a Dreg Walk Into a Bar [12]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Childhood Trauma, Dreams and Nightmares, Fluff and Angst, Late Night Conversations, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:33:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25985197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lohksparce/pseuds/Lohksparce
Summary: Everything was fine at first, and then the late night distress calls from Concerto began.
Relationships: Male Guardian/Original Fallen | Eliksni Character(s)
Series: A Guardian and a Dreg Walk Into a Bar [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1695205
Comments: 2
Kudos: 31





	Music to Soothe a Distressed Hatchling

**Author's Note:**

> I tried to work on other fics but my groove is still just on Gaia and Meeksis... They aren't forgotten, I've just had a lot of ideas for their story lately. Hopefully I'll have something up for one of the others soon, probably either Hiveguard or Together in Darkness!

Gaia's orange optics slowly flickered into existence, casting an orange glow on the back of Meeksis' head.

The soft static of his systems dragging themselves online cut through the distressed chirps echoing in the room. He blinked a few times, letting out a crackling groan. One eye glanced over at the clock on his nightstand: three in the morning on the dot. It seemed like he and Meeksis had been asleep for five minutes, max. Maybe not even five minutes. Said Eliksni burbled slightly, rolling over onto his back and turning his head to peer at Gaia with sleepy, lidded eyes.

"Mm... Concerto is crying again?"

"Yeah," Gaia sighed. "Here, I'll get him. You keep sleeping." He leaned in and kissed Meeksis' forehead before dragging himself out of bed and onto his feet. "You too, Pal."

The Ghost gave a sleepy hum from its tiny bed.

A moment of thought had his eyes lighting up brighter, cutting through the darkness. Gaia yawned and adjusted his lopsided pajama pants as he walked over to the crib. Concerto chirped loudly, half-burrowed into his nest of blankets, half Devrim's and half ones his parents had brought for him, and several scarves of his own to slob on. He squirmed, chest near vibrating with his quick little breaths, and a chirp transitioned into a desperate burble. Little claws dug into the blankets while their own struggled to push himself up onto his arms and legs to crawl over to the familiar form.

"Hey. buddy, what's got you upset again?" Gaia whispered, lifting Concerto up into his arms and cuddling him against his chest. The hatchling's claws found the tiny breaks in-between his plates and gripped them with all the force his arms could muster.

Under the soft, warm light of the Exo's optics, Concerto's chirps died down into a soft burble. Cooing, he relaxed against Gaia's chest, eyes glancing about the room. Gaia bounced him softly, remembering it from a book he'd bought from a nearby book store: _'All About Parenting'._ Babies crying in the night was normal. Maybe they were hungry, or needed a diaper change. He'd know if that was the case. There wasn't a foul smell wafting up from Concerto and he'd just been fed an hour ago.

The first few days had been fine.

Their hatchling slept soundly through the whole night, even though the book said babies often woke up at night. Granted, it was about human babies instead of Eliksni hatchlings, but so far, most of it was helping, and Meeksis filled in the rest with what he knew. But after those first few nights, the distress calls began. One of them would lull him to sleep with music or rocking, put him to bed, and then the night wakeups and crying began soon after. Meeksis had told him that hatchlings grew fast in the first six months but he was only a few weeks old.

Gaia glanced down at Concerto and the hatchling's eyes began to close. A slow blink here, and then another, and Concerto's eyes finally closed and he let out a tiny sigh.

"Let's get you back to bed then," Gaia whispered, leaning down to give him a kiss on the head. He dimmed his optic lights and grabbed one of the hatchling's scarves before heading back to he and Meeksis' bed, feeling Concerto curl up into a little ball against his chest.

Meeksis shifted and yawned, grabbing and extra pillow and laying it beside him. Gaia bundled their hatchling up within the scarf and laid him on the pillow after unhooking the tiny claws from his plating. With a soft grunt, the Exo crawled into bed and settled down beneath the blankets.

"Poor thing... I wish our little scarf-eater could speak, and tell us what bothers him so," Meeksis murmured. He wrapped an arm loosely around the small bundle.

"Me too. I hate seeing him so scared." Gaia let out a static-filled sigh. "And he sleeps fine during the day too, I just don't get it. He didn't seem hungry either."

Meeksis' echoed the sigh with one of his own. He studied Concerto, eyes narrowing slightly. It was one of the few times he missed his crew. He could go find one of the nursery caretakers and ask them what was wrong, but, he could no longer do that. Gaia and he could figure this out. Who else would know their little one best? Other than the original parents... The Eliksni's brow furrowed, eyes scrunching up, and Gaia reached over to hold one of his hands and give it a gentle squeeze.

"Whatever it is that bothers, must be something at night. Maybe a noise we do not hear? Noisy Hunters?"

Gaia's frown was thoughtful. "Maybe. If it were other Guardians, they'd probably wake us up too though."

He stroked one of Meeksis' knuckles with his thumb, propping himself up on one of his elbows. Maybe he was having nightmares? Could babies even have nightmares? As a newly reborn Exo, he had nightmares like many of his kind did. Terrifying visages of the Deep Stone Crypt: a long tower on a flat plain, calling to him like a screeching banshee, loud and soft all at the same time, fighting faceless ghouls that didn't know a true shape, and being born of wire and plate. Sometimes it had been fragments of forgotten past lives and faceless people he wasn't sure if he knew or not. How many times had he woken up in the night, terrified and crying out for his Ghost?

Fearing that in the darkness of his room, the walls would fall away to reveal plains and faceless monsters, and that tower waiting for him.

Gaia broke the silence and Meeksis tilted his head to look at him, curious.

"I think... that he's scared of the dark, like I used to be. Something wakes him up in the night and all he sees is darkness. Not like when he wakes up in the day and we're with him, making noise. Alive."

"And so he cries out. Someone. Anyone. Wanting us," Meeksis murmured. It was his turn to reach across and gently touch Gaia's face. He had never seen such a distant look in his eyes, but after a moment, it was gone. Pushed down inside. "What was done for nightmares? And... what were they of?"

"I was new to the Tower then so I'd just stay up. Walk around my room or go walk around the Tower until my systems made me go offline," Gaia leaned into the touch, enjoying the cool touch. "Sometimes I slept with the lights on. Oh, I'd leave the TV on too. Let old Golden Age movies run. It helped remind me I was home."

Gaia went quiet again, feeling a shiver down his spine. He was stronger now though. He wasn't new and alone. One hand gave Meeksis' hand another squeeze, gentle and caring. Friends were in the City below. Family was in the room with him.

"The Deep Stone Crypt. Where me and every other Exo was born. All of us dream of it I think. I don't even know how to describe what dreaming of it feels like. It's so real, but it's not. It screams at me even though I can't hear it."

Meeksis' eyes narrowed in concern, crinkling in the inner edges. Even the name sounded ominous.

"This Deep Stone Crypt will not take you away. I will protect you," Meeksis said softly. He traced the lines of the Exo's plating. "I promise."

Gaia smiled, mouth lights flaring up and scattering light across the bed. "Thank you."

Meeksis carefully leaned over and nuzzled Gaia, planting a tiny kiss on his brow before settling back down, feeling tiredness start to rear it's head.

"You will tell me if ever have these dreams again?"

"Yeah, I will."

"Good." The Eliksni was satisfied. "Tomorrow, we test your ideas."

Gaia nodded. "I'm sure they'll work for him. And if they don't, we'll think of something. Gotta make sure our little boy gets a good night's rest."

Meeksis gave a partial nod, then was cut off with another yawn. Crisis averted for the moment, he relaxed back into the blankets with a sleepy chitter, curling up around Concerto's bundle like he usually would. Gaia curled up around the two of them as best he could, and directed his systems to leave his oral lights on. Both of them brought a hand up to cuddle Concerto, and soon enough, sleep reclaimed them.

*** ***

The next night, their plan went into action.

Gaia had gone out early in the day and found a nightlight for Concerto, one that wasn't too bright and cast images of stars and shapes on the ceiling and walls as they danced. Meeksis searched through his troves of music and selected tracks just for their hatchling: soft songs with pleasant vocals, humans and Eliksni. He had found a little speaker and hooked up his data-pad to it, and room wouldn't be silent with it on. Before they crawled into bed for the night, Gaia made sure the nightlight was on and Meeksis' put on Concerto's specially made playlist, and they even moved the crib closer to their bed. Concerto burbled to himself, entranced by the gentle, shimmering lights until the music lulled him off to sleep, all bundled up within his nest that had grown by one colorful, polka dot scarf, courtesy of an impulse buy from Gaia. _'Concerto would love it,'_ he had said, and Meeksis' agreed. By the amount of slob the hatchling had put on it in the ten minutes between it leaving the dryer, toasty warm, and being delivered to his nest, Concerto did too.

All three of them slept soundly.

No distress calls, full of confusion and terror. All that woke them were the hungry chirps that signified that a certain little scarf-eater wanted a meal that wasn't fabric.

**Author's Note:**

> Music for this chapter is: Music to Soothe the Savage Snake Plant by Mort Garrison.


End file.
